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Am I the only one that doesn't think he should have been fined at all?

Simply touching a referee is not fine worthy. Maybe the NFL should also fine coaches who are chatting with a ref with their arm on the ref's shoulder. Or they should fine a coach when he taps the ref on the shoulder, to tell him he wants a timeout.

Yeah! And players who smack a teammate on the helmet after a good play should be flagged and fined as well!

C'mon man. You know the stuff you described isn't comparable to running up to a ref, yelling at him, and grabbing his arm.

I was just using hyperbole to get a point across. The point being, there was no intent on the arm grab, other than a request for information.

I suppose your view is that the way Belicheck initiated the contact warrants a fine?_________________

Am I the only one that doesn't think he should have been fined at all?

Simply touching a referee is not fine worthy. Maybe the NFL should also fine coaches who are chatting with a ref with their arm on the ref's shoulder. Or they should fine a coach when he taps the ref on the shoulder, to tell him he wants a timeout.

Yeah! And players who smack a teammate on the helmet after a good play should be flagged and fined as well!

C'mon man. You know the stuff you described isn't comparable to running up to a ref, yelling at him, and grabbing his arm.

I was just using hyperbole to get a point across. The point being, there was no intent on the arm grab, other than a request for information.

I suppose your view is that the way Belicheck initiated the contact warrants a fine?

Am I the only one that doesn't think he should have been fined at all?

Simply touching a referee is not fine worthy. Maybe the NFL should also fine coaches who are chatting with a ref with their arm on the ref's shoulder. Or they should fine a coach when he taps the ref on the shoulder, to tell him he wants a timeout.

Yeah! And players who smack a teammate on the helmet after a good play should be flagged and fined as well!

C'mon man. You know the stuff you described isn't comparable to running up to a ref, yelling at him, and grabbing his arm.

I was just using hyperbole to get a point across. The point being, there was no intent on the arm grab, other than a request for information.

I suppose your view is that the way Belicheck initiated the contact warrants a fine?

The refs shouldnt have to explain themselves for any coach who demands information, once the game has been concluded and players/coaches are leaving the field. Completely classless by BB.

Except...that's not true. The refs do have to explain themselves, constantly, they address the crowd after every flag, they go to the sidelines and talk to the coaches. One of the most important parts of a ref's job is communicating the application of the rules to the players, coaches and audience. And those replacements sucked at it.

I can't get with the idea that BB "disrespected" the official. The official disrespected BB. He's a HOF coach who has probably forgotten more about this game than that ref will ever know, and he got blanked. That's just rude. If I had been jobbed by someone else's incompetence and then they ignored my request for an explanation I would try and get their attention too. And that's all he did. People are reacting like he took a swing or shoved him over._________________Adopt-a-Pat2014 - Rob Gronkowski TE: Rec: 82 Yds: 1124 TD: 12
2015 - Rob Ninkovich DE: Tkl: 52 Sck: 6.5 FF: 1 FR: 1 INT: 0 PD: 7
2016 - Julian Edelman WR: Rec: 98 Yds: 1106 TD: 3

But honestly, Harbaugh barely grazed that ref with his antic... I can see it being justified as he should have been fined $20k or something- especially had this replacement protection rule been in play- but it wasn't.

Belichick literally yanked the ref while he was in a good jog. THAT could've resulted in liability for the NFL.. and that is a missing element that many are not considering. Say that happens and that replacement buckles a knee... suddenly that $300m the NFL has saved with using the replacement officials isn't exactly $300m any longer.

It's not just about "intent" and if it were malicious or not. And it's not just about making contact with an official. Right here you have a triple threat. Belichick a) breaks a mandate by the league to overly protect the officials b) TOUCHES an official and c) touches the official in a manner that could've resulted in liability/possible harm.

Honestly, I feel like Belichick could have been fined upwards of $65k for this incident. But I think the league likely took into account his previously good record/behavior towards officials in the past.
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As an aside I think these fines were also a big/underrated part of getting the NFL back to the table. Because when guys like Belichick are operating in this kind of way and you have to fine him- a guy who usually isn't an issue... and you know incidents like this are going to just continue to happen week after week, fine after fine, you can see the rising level of emotion eventually resulting in an irreparable situation between the owners and the (players/coaches). Add in the dimension with the fans becoming more and more hostile (BMore manure chant that was sure to happen again this Thursday) and potentially embarrassing for a telecast/the league... and they were beginning to lose their leverage. The league honestly couldn't wait much longer before all of this bubbling energy really hit them hard.

EDIT: And the notion of a suspension I always felt to be absolutely ridiculous. Never thought it was suspension worthy.

You're right...I'm surprised the ref came away from that assault and battery with his life.

Nowhere did he say it was a malicious attack on the ref, nor anything close to "assault" or "battery". Try reading it objectively instead of instantly getting defensive and you may understand the point he was making.

Somebody's sarcasm detector is broken

It's not broken at all, I was being sarcastic right back. Your sarcastic statement took a jab at DB24's post whose point clearly went right above your head if that's the sarcastic remark you chose._________________

[quote="SFPatsFan"]

Flaccomania is a genius who is an expert on literally everything he talks about so you should trust him. [/quote]

How does this draw 50k while helmet-to-helmet hits pay only 21k? I'd understand if he really did assault the ref, but there's been a colossal emphasis on helmet hits, and yet textbook cases of that are 30k less than this incident where a coach grabs an official by the arm....._________________#JDI

How does this draw 50k while helmet-to-helmet hits pay only 21k? I'd understand if he really did assault the ref, but there's been a colossal emphasis on helmet hits, and yet textbook cases of that are 30k less than this incident where a coach grabs an official by the arm.....

Because one can clearly be by pure accident and the other is a clear disrespect and crossing the line. You have to have a specific penalty for specific plays (and not judging intent, or that's a slippery slope), and if you started fining every player $50k for H2H hits, you're going to have a LOT of unhappy guys who did it purely by accident. Grabbing an official is not an accidental move and is uncalled for._________________

[quote="SFPatsFan"]

Flaccomania is a genius who is an expert on literally everything he talks about so you should trust him. [/quote]

I, for one, applaud Belichick for his actions. The refs owed him an explanation and I would have done the same thing if they had ignored me.

Seriously, the ref was straight up disrespecting Belichick. All he wanted was an explanation/answer.

Ehh, why? The refs made their call so I don't see why they owed him anything...

anyway, this makes me laugh cause I think about when Cowher shoved a picture in the refs shirt pocket one game!

Ignoring somebody is disrespectful. All the ref had to say was "I'm sorry, that play isn't reviewable" and this isn't even being discussed.

That's why he had an issue with it. Think about this....what's the purpose of "ignoring" or "dismissing" an individual ?? Basically to let them know that you don't care about what they have to say. It almost seemed like the officials had their mind made up on the play and didn't even bother explaining, and this was the SECOND week in a row they pulled this on him. He was searching for an explanation on why no running into the kicker was called against ARZ on the final FG (as well as the phantom hold) and he was received the same way.....completely ignored.

The refs shouldnt have to explain themselves for any coach who demands information, once the game has been concluded and players/coaches are leaving the field. Completely classless by BB.

Did you not see McMurtry's post on the second page? Refs bringing players back out after a review is not unprecedented and all of the refs were ignoring Belichick apparently, not just this one. I don't condone what he did, and he apologized sincerely but all in all, it's not a big deal. Especially considering what Harbaugh did and got away with much less. Grabbing a ref's arm to get his attention or smacking his arm, which is a bit worse?_________________
ELRammy

I would have fined both Harbaugh and Bill 1/16th of their yearly salary (i.e. a "game check") and suspended Reed one game for his hit.

And I love the Ravens.

You just can't touch officials. At all.

Really don't think that most people have any problem with Belichick been fined... but anyone who thinks Belichick should be suspended because he wanted to make sure the game is over and the final play can't be challenged so he tried to get the refs attention is a fool.